With your pork chop sandwich on white toast with applesauce, may we suggest Diet Coke, 1987? It's a forthright little beverage. You will be amused by its vigor and presumption. With the Francheezie, try Sprite. Yes, sir, the menu combinations of food and drink at the Paddle Wheel, consensus choice among residents as west suburban River Forest's finest restaurant, are multitudinous. The plastic-coated bill of fare features more than 125 offerings, including...

By Garrison Keillor, Tribune Media Services. Garrison Keillor is an author and host of "A Prairie Home Companion." | April 18, 2007

Once when I was teaching a composition class at the university, I flew back from New York for class and neglected to get back on Central Standard Time. I came bustling into the classroom and walked to the front, took off my coat, set my briefcase on the table, smiled at the students assembled, and was about to open my mouth and start talking about the importance of structure in comic writing and then something struck me as Not Right. Familiar faces were missing. I leaned down and said to a girl in...

With the yellowed antique photographs of her 11 predecessors looking on from her office wall, Rachel Kelly ponders what the founder of her 109-year-old temperance union might have done to defeat an upcoming advisory referendum in Evanston. The referendum, depending on who is talking, could lead to the ruination of Evanston, or be the source of much-needed tax revenues. Frances Willard, the sister of sobriety who founded the Woman's Christian Temperance Union in 1883, "would have organized...

Sarah Ward hears the mistakes and misconceptions about the Woman's Christian Temperance Union all the time. People regularly get the name of the world-famous Evanston-based group wrong, saying "Women's" instead of "Woman's." They assume the only issue it advocates is abstinence from alcohol. And, seeing as how Prohibition ended 71 years ago, a fair number of people are surprised it still exists at all. One stereotype, she said, is true: most WCTU members are older women. "I'm in my...

By William Safire. (copyright) 1989, New York Times News Service | March 1, 1989

Before the Brinkley program began on Sunday, in the "green room" (so named for the guest-relaxing color on its walls), I asked John Tower if he intended to challenge Sen. Sam Nunn and others opposed to his nomination. "I recall the story of the man on his deathbed," he replied, "who was asked if he would like to denounce the Devil. He said, `Now's not the time to be making new enemies.` " Accordingly, Tower went on the air primarily to defuse the "drinking problem"...

Rachel B. Kelly, 79, who grew up as the only girl in a family of ministers and became the national president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, died after a long battle with leukemia Monday, Jan. 14, in Sarasota Memorial Hospital in Sarasota, Fla. Mrs. Kelly also was a Prohibition Party candidate for U.S. vice president in 1996. Born and raised in Blaine, Maine, Mrs. Kelly was the daughter of a Baptist minister and the sister of five brothers who also joined the ministry.

Until the mid-1920s, Northwestern University's athletic teams were called the Fighting Methodists. The name has a nice paradoxical ring that captures the religious zeal as well as the rugged drive of the school's founders. On May 31, 1850, they knelt in prayer in a law office above a downtown Chicago hardware store, and then rose to agree on a document calling for the "establishment of a university in the northwest" that would serve "the interests of sanctified learning." Celebrating its 150th...

Until the mid-1920s, Northwestern University's athletic teams were called the Fighting Methodists. The name has a nice paradoxical ring that captures the religious zeal as well as the rugged drive of the school's founders. On May 31, 1850, they knelt in prayer in a law office above a downtown Chicago hardware store, and then rose to agree on a document calling for the "establishment of a university in the northwest" that would serve "the interests of sanctified learning." Celebrating its 150th...

Rachel B. Kelly, 79, who grew up as the only girl in a family of ministers and became the national president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, died after a long battle with leukemia Monday, Jan. 14, in Sarasota Memorial Hospital in Sarasota, Fla. Mrs. Kelly also was a Prohibition Party candidate for U.S. vice president in 1996. Born and raised in Blaine, Maine, Mrs. Kelly was the daughter of a Baptist minister and the sister of five brothers who also joined the ministry.

Ruth Virginia Pradel, 85, co-founder of Central Baptist Church in Naperville and the mother of Naperville Mayor George Pradel, died Friday, Jan. 28, in Edward Hospital in Naperville. Born in North Burick, Maine, Mrs. Pradel was a resident of Naperville since 1939. In 1944, she and her husband, Arthur, founded the Edgewood Baptist Chapel, a bible club for children on Plank Road in what was then rural Naperville "The club grew into a Sunday school and moved into Naperville at 7th Avenue and...

By Garrison Keillor, Tribune Media Services. Garrison Keillor is an author and host of "A Prairie Home Companion." | April 18, 2007

Once when I was teaching a composition class at the university, I flew back from New York for class and neglected to get back on Central Standard Time. I came bustling into the classroom and walked to the front, took off my coat, set my briefcase on the table, smiled at the students assembled, and was about to open my mouth and start talking about the importance of structure in comic writing and then something struck me as Not Right. Familiar faces were missing. I leaned down and said to a girl in...

Talk about waking the dead. Halloween haunting reached historic heights, or depths, in Lake Bluff last weekend, depending on where you think gangster Al Capone and Woman's Christian Temperance Union leader Frances Willard found their final resting places. Supporters of the Vliet Center for Lake Bluff Area History called up spirits from the shadier, sometimes funny, occasionally tragic side of the town's past for the third annual Ghost Walk. But as coordinator-researcher Cathy McKechney of...

Ann Elizabeth Suloway and Timothy Allen Baker were married June 19 at Lairmont Manor in Bellingham, Wash. Rev. Janet Simpson officiated. The bride attended Lake Forest College and has a bachelor's degree from Western Washington University. She works as coordinating administrator of Womencare Shelter in Bellingham. Her parents are Dr. Irwin J. and Elaine Suloway of Chicago. Her father is an editor and retired professor and dean of academic affairs at Chicago State University.

West Chicago is throwing a birthday party for a 100-year-old resident that has been a fountain of relief and history for dwellers here since arriving. In fact, the honored guest is a fountain. As part of the 24th annual Railroad Days to be held here Thursday through Sunday, the West Chicago City Museum is honoring the cast-iron fountain that was presented to the city 100 years ago by the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. "It was given to the city then to promote the...

West Chicago is throwing a birthday party for a 100-year-old resident that has been a fountain of relief and history for dwellers here since arriving. In fact, the honored guest is a fountain. As part of the 24th annual Railroad Days to be held here Thursday through Sunday, the West Chicago City Museum is honoring the cast-iron fountain that was presented to the city 100 years ago by the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. "It was given to the city then to promote the...

Fred S. Niemann, 84, a Chicago photographer and producer of industrial and advertising films, died March 19 in Northwestern Memorial Hospital. He was a resident of the Gold Coast neighborhood. During the late 1930s and 1940s, he was a gag writer and story man with Merrie Melodies Cartoons in Hollywood. Among the films he produced in Chicago was "Behind the Skyscrapers" for the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. There are no immediate survivors. A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. April 5 in the Blake-Lamb...

The new Historical Women's Walking Tour at Rosehill Cemetery highlights the contributions of prominent area women who are interred there-Myra Bradwell, considered by many as the first female lawyer in the United States, although she was at first rejected by the state bar association; Mary Loomis, a Civil war nurse and soldier, Zebina Eastman, an author and abolitionist, and Frances Willard, founder of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. The free, hourlong tours are led by David Wendell, Rosehill's...

The new Historical Women's Walking Tour at Rosehill Cemetery highlights the contributions of prominent area women who are interred there-Myra Bradwell, considered by many as the first female lawyer in the United States, although she was at first rejected by the state bar association; Mary Loomis, a Civil war nurse and soldier, Zebina Eastman, an author and abolitionist, and Frances Willard, founder of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. The free, hourlong tours are led by David Wendell, Rosehill's...

Fred S. Niemann, 84, a Chicago photographer and producer of industrial and advertising films, died March 19 in Northwestern Memorial Hospital. He was a resident of the Gold Coast neighborhood. During the late 1930s and 1940s, he was a gag writer and story man with Merrie Melodies Cartoons in Hollywood. Among the films he produced in Chicago was "Behind the Skyscrapers" for the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. There are no immediate survivors. A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. April 5 in the Blake-Lamb...